Topic 2 What are My Rights?

Every EU worker has certain minimum rights relating to:

  • Health and safety at work: general rights and obligations, workplaces, work equipment, specific risks and vulnerable workers

  • Equal opportunities for women and men: equal treatment at work, pregnancy, maternity leave, parental leave

  • Protection against discrimination based on sex, gender, race, religion, age, disability and sexual orientation

  • Labour law: part-time work, fixed-term contracts, working hours, employment of young people, informing and consulting employees

Individual EU countries must make sure that their national laws protect these rights laid down by EU employment laws (Directives).

https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=82&langId=en

Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay

What are the worker rights (and organisation’s duties)?:

  • To work in a safe, discrimination-free environment
  • To talk about or speak out against gender discrimination at work, whether it is happening to you or to someone else
  • To have fluent and open communication channels with your employer or the responsible department for reporting on any company policy, practice, or manager that is discriminatory or engaging in discrimination
  • To report the discriminatory behaviour (or policy) to HR or your boss
  • To not receive retaliation for taking these steps